


Hot N Cold

by baldngay



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, F/F, M/M, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:41:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 12,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28753074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baldngay/pseuds/baldngay
Summary: Daniel and Johnny waking up one day with superpowers and having absolutely no idea how to deal with it. It gets gay.
Relationships: Carmen Diaz/Amanda LaRusso, Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence, Demetri/Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 66
Kudos: 97





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ight so i’m scared to post this bc it’s my second fic ever and idk how long it’ll take to finish but uuuuuh any comments welcome honestly even if you’re straight up slagging it off  
> i hope it’s not too bad??? this has been living in my brain for a long time and i needed to get it out :)

Daniel LaRusso was on fire. Not like “wow this guy is fucking killing it”, but literally on fire. It was 4:37am on a Monday morning and Daniel sat there staring at the flames dancing in the space where his right arm should be in absolute horror, his mouth gaping open and snapping shut several times, before letting out a strangled gasp. Amanda had picked up the kids some nine hours previously, something he was incredibly glad of in his current state.  


There wasn’t any pain, no anchor for him to focus on as he rushed to the bathroom, desperate to get away from anything flammable, to find a water source and what he assumed would be salvation. Reaching for the tap with his hand, Daniel tried extinguishing the flame to no avail, the water just ran straight over his burning limb as if it were still made of skin and he tumbled backwards, sending the little bottles of expensive lotion lined up on the counter flying in his wake.  


In situations like this - as if any human being has ever experienced a situation like this before, his brain supplied, helpfully - he’d usually turn to the breathing techniques taught to him by Mr Miyagi, a steadying rhythm to ground him and help him to focus on the problem at hand rationally. It helped, with each breath the flames began to fall away as his skin came back into view, completely unharmed as if nothing had happened at all. But something had happened, he knew that much.

-

Tilting his head back to catch the last of his fourth beer between his lips, Johnny caught sight of the clock flashing on the stove: 4:37am. Eh, not as late as it had been the last few nights, he’d probably just finish this one and head to bed. And maybe he would have, had the beer just actually been moving. Johnny knew how beer was meant to work, in its reliable liquid state, flowing freely down his throat and heading straight to his brain, wiping away all of the worries in it, but this wasn't the case. The beer had solidified into a frozen lump at the bottom of the bottle and, being three and a half beers deep, he was really powerless to do anything but shake until maybe the beer decided it would play along. It didn’t.  


Deciding that maybe it was for the best and chucking the bottle into a heap with the others, Johnny turned to stand from the couch before stopping halfway to stare in shock at his surroundings. Everything in his little apartment was covered entirely in a thick layer of ice. He sat back down and decided to deal with it in the morning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Had to shove in some of the other characters, especially my boy Chris.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if there are any mistakes im way too into this now
> 
> also thank you for all the kudos and the comments! i didn’t expect anything and i cried a little but we move

It took Miguel shouting his name five times at an increasingly unreasonable volume to awaken Johnny a few hours later. The ice was gone and he chalked it up to an incredibly weird dream fuelled by the alcohol and decided not to think any more about it before finally moving from the couch and answering the boy. 

“Jesus, Diaz, you’ve got some lungs on you.” He flung open the door, only scowling a little as Miguel pushed past him and into the apartment.

“Sensei, it’s the second proper training session in the joint dojo, you can’t be late! That’s like rule number one!” The boy was waving his arms around and eyeing the empty bottles in the corner, warily when he thought Johnny wasn’t looking. He continued to rant, “Sensei LaRusso’s gonna be so mad, we have to go, like now.”  
Miguel paused once more, realising none of what he’d said had gone any way to spurring on the man in front of him at all. When he spoke up again it was a lot less frantic and prefaced by a big sigh, “Robby’s gonna be there.” 

Johnny realised just how annoying it was starting to get that the kid knew him so well as he pulled up to Miyagi-do with Miguel in the passenger seat and some hair metal song he hadn’t heard in years blasting through the radio. They stepped out of the car, which was now clean of its yellow stripes and Cobra Kai logos, and into the garden of the dojo, where pretty much everyone was already flitting around. Chris and Mitch were taking up most of the attention, seemingly caught in a two-man game of twister, with Bert shouting in encouragement and acting as a referee. Sam waved Miguel over to her and Robby the second she spotted him, leaving Johnny to survey the rest of the garden, noticing Hawk and Demetri cross-legged and caught in quiet conversation in the opposite corner to everyone else. 

There was a noticeable lack of order, meaning that Daniel hadn’t yet shown up, despite usually hanging around an extra hour before everyone else was due to show. That was weird, but Johnny told himself he didn’t care about him enough to look too far into it. Instead, he turned back toward the students and waited a few seconds before bellowing out a sharp bark. After having gained their attention, Sensei Lawrence began the session.

-

By the time Daniel had managed to get ready and out of the house after peeling himself off of the bathroom floor, he was already twenty minutes late. This wasn’t even including the extra ten it would take for him to drive to the dojo if traffic was good, which it was not so he arrived an entire forty-five minutes late. Johnny had already warmed up the students and was using Nate to demonstrate the correct way to escape a choke hold when he walked into the garden, telling the students to pair up and attempt the move themselves a few times once he realised Daniel had arrived. 

“What happened to you, Larusso? You look like shit.”

It wasn’t entirely unwarranted, he knew he looked like shit because could feel his hair sticking up at odd angles and the dark circles that felt like they were pulling the skin away from his eyeballs, but he couldn’t help but bristle a little at the comment.

“Thanks, Johnny, always the charmer, huh?” he grumbled, smoothing a hand through his hair and pushing past the other man to check the students’ progress. 

“Sorry I was late, it was a rough night.” Having already walked away, Daniel didn’t see the concern etched into Johnny’s face.

-

“Sam said she had to go home.” Robby slid into the booth next to Hawk and picked a fry off of Chris’ plate, earning him a kick to the ankle. 

“She’s probably worried about her dad, dude, did you see him? He looked like actual ass.” Demetri leaned further into Hawk’s side as the other boy laid his mohawked head onto his shoulder. At his boyfriend’s comment, Hawk snorted, but nodded in agreement. 

“I mean Mr L’s usually a dish but today? Nah.” Hawk and Mitch snickered as Demetri continued his tirade, but Robby groaned and shoved his head into his hands.

“God, Demetri, I’m literally begging you to never call Sensei LaRusso a dish again.” said Miguel, reaching a sympathetic hand out towards Robby before thinking better of it and leveling a look at the boy he was talking to. “The guy’s hot, but that’s my ex-girlfriend’s dad.” 

The rest of the table started to giggle and soon the topic of conversation was forgotten, but there was a gnawing sense of dread settling in Robby’s gut. Not enough to stop him from eating the entire other half of Chris’ fries, though.

-

As the teens sat in their booth, Daniel sat staring absentmindedly at the road ahead of him as he pulled away from Miyagi-do. His stomach growled and he remembered that he hadn’t eaten yet, so he turned the car onto the highway and headed towards the nearest fast food restaurant. With the day he’d had he wasn’t about to cook anything or bother to be healthy. 

Just as he was about to enter the restaurant, Daniel noticed how eerily quiet it was, despite it being 7pm. He took note that there were plenty of people inside, but none seemed to be saying anything and there were two men standing in the middle of the queues, waving their arms in the air. It was then that Daniel saw the gun. The breath left his lungs and his mind raced with what to do, but soon he felt a horribly familiar lightness in his limbs, looking down only to realise that he was completely submerged in flames. 

Daniel’s mind went blank as he entered the building, hearing a few gasps and registering that there were a few phone camera lights flashing and pivoting from the robbers to face in his direction. He cleared his throat and watched as the two men took in his appearance, one of them taking a huge step back and the one with the gun raising it at him. They were afraid, he could see it in their eyes.

“So you’re just gonna rob a McDonald’s during the dinner rush, huh?” he raised an eyebrow at them, but assumed they wouldn’t be able to see past all the fire. Taking another step towards the men, who by this time were standing by themselves with all of the people queuing, having scattered in the chaos he’d caused, Daniel lifted an arm to grab the gun. The metal melted under his fingers and the robber dropped it immediately as if he’d been burnt, which, in hindsight, he probably had. Taking one more look at him, then at the cashiers at the tills and then each other, the men fled and sped off in a car Daniel really hoped was theirs. 

Realising now that every single eye was on him, he swiftly followed suit, rushing through the doors and taking shelter in the bushes behind the restaurant, effectively obscuring his inflamed being from view. Daniel focussed on his breathing. In and out. In and out. He was still hungry, maybe he could go to In-N-Out, there was one across the street. That’s not the point, the point was to keep breathing. The flames began to subside and Daniel slid around the building and reached his car, slamming his head down on the steering wheel. Fuck. 

-

There was a worry in the back of his mind, one that was telling him that maybe Larusso wasn’t just having a bad day, maybe something big was going on. He didn’t know what it would be and he was trying not to think about why he cared this much about a man who he had only started getting on with properly mere days prior, so he thought about the rest of his day. It hadn’t been so bad, most of the students had picked up the new technique fairly quickly and he’d gotten to hang out with Robby for a little bit before the rest of the kids pulled him into whatever shitty teenage activity they were planning. 

When he turned on the TV, the news was on, so that was fun. Johnny limply reached an arm out towards the remote, but halted the moment a breaking story flashed over the screen. 

“A man appearing to be coated in fire proved to be an unlikely hero in a small Californian town today. At 6:55pm, two masked men entered a McDonald’s wielding guns and threatening staff and customers, before being interrupted five minutes later by what scientists are calling “impossible”.” An awkwardly recorded video of two men shouting inaudibly at customers popped up on the screen. The camera panned and showed what could only be described as a man coated in fire, his head tapered off into a flamed point and the rest of his body was a barely distinguishable figure covered from head to toe in glowing flames that showed not even an inch of skin. Turning towards the camera, the man narrowed his eyes, simple sockets that shone brighter than the rest of his body and then turned his attention towards the robbers. 

Johnny didn’t hear what the news presenter was saying after that, he was sat stock still in complete shock. What the fuck?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading  
> you’re a legend :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hell yeah, theydies and gentlethem, our two absolutely horrible heroes meet in this one.

“So you’re telling me that there’s a real life superhero out there and I’m the only person that’s freaking out about it?” 

“Dem, with all due respect, you’re a fucking nerd.” Hawk squawked as he was shoved dangerously close to the pond with the balance wheel swaying as his hand brushed it. 

“It’s gotta be fake, right?” Sam worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “No way can anyone survive that much fire, it has to be fake otherwise..”

Mitch cut off her train of thought as he barrelled through the doors and shoved his phone into the centre of the circle of teens, showing it around wildly. 

“Dudes, you're never gonna fucking believe this. My cousin got a job at McDonald’s like a month back and she usually works weekends but school’s out so she started working weeks too and…” he paused to catch a breath, gasping and looking around wildly. “Anyway she took this video and sent it to me this morning. Guy’s she was there!” 

Everyone was suddenly crowding round the screen, which showed a video of the fire man but this time from an angle behind the robbers, showing his face in more detail. Seeing as it was only his eyes visible, the man was yet to be identified, though scores of people had been falsely claiming to know or to even be him. 

At that moment, Daniel strode in looking just as dishevelled as the day before, if slightly happier. 

“Hey, guys.” He actually managed a smile as he made his way over to where they sat. Mitch has already started shoving the phone into his face. 

“Sensei, look!” Daniel had to squint to make out what was going on on the screen due to its close proximity to his face, but once he made out the content, he carefully schooled his features into a confused expression. “What the hell is that? Is that fire?” 

“Dad, you didn’t hear?” 

“Yeah, there’s totally some Firestorm knock-off walking around California.” Demetri was grinning widely.

“Firestorm?” 

“He’s like this fire dude, he’s really badass.” Hawk supplied, he looked like he was about to go into more detail as his eyes began to light up, but Miguel and Johnny came in. Everyone’s attention was drawn to Mitch who was, once again, flailing his phone and talking a mile a minute. 

“Mitch, dude, you gotta chill out.” Nate laughed. Mitch turned and looked at him, obviously about to retort, when Daniel called out for the session to begin and everyone was working their way into place. 

-

It was a good training session, they’d gone over the rest of the basics to ensure everyone was in the same place so it ended up being pretty simple. Johnny wasn’t focussed on the kids, however, and he felt himself zone out halfway through to think about the other night. Surely it was a coincidence, him having his little ice incident and then some guy showing up in flames. Right?

He didn’t get too much time to think, seeing as LaRusso had insisted on them staying behind after the lesson to plan out what they would be teaching over the next week. With the school holidays having just started, everyone was around a lot more and it was their opportunity to focus on more difficult techniques and moves as they’d have more time. 

“Thanks for today’s session, Dad.” Sam called through the sliding door. “Oh, and thank you, Sensei Lawrence.”

Johnny’s head snapped round and he caught her smiling at her, much less nervously than she had the first few times they’d met. It felt nice and he found himself answering her sincerely and returning a slightly lopsided grin. 

“Sure thing, kid. You did good.” 

And then she was gone, leaving him alone with LaRusso, who was letting his happy mask from earlier slip a little more with each breath. He turned his head towards Johnny, face almost completely back to the pained grimace that was fixed on it the day before. 

“We need to go through more offensive maneuvers with the ex-Miyagi-do kids and then some more defensive ones with the ex-Eagle Fang kids.” he finally said, moving to a standing position and ignoring the way his legs popped painfully. “I know you’re all about offense and I’m all about defense, so I think we should plan out what we want to teach the kids together, before we split off into groups.” 

“Sounds good.” And then, almost like an afterthought, even though it had been playing on his mind for a solid twenty-four hours, “you ok, man? You look kinda off and you didn’t even mention Bert’s villain monologue earlier.” 

It was a weird monologue, real intense and the word fuck came up in there a good ten times, but it was pretty cool. And if Johnny thought it was cool, that meant that LaRusso would fundamentally hate it, yet he didn’t say a word. 

“What? Oh, yeah no I’m fine, just a little rundown.” 

It was silent for the next three hours, only broken when they’d ask each other for their opinion on their respective plans.

-

The video was still haunting Johnny as he set his keys down on the counter in his kitchen and opened up his laptop. With YouTube up and his search history now full of a million variations of “fire dude robbery”, he scraped a hand down his face and threw his head back into the back of the sofa. He let his mind wander to two nights previous, his whole apartment covered in ice. Beginning to focus his breathing and pull the shutters down over his thoughts, Johnny stretched his arms and focussed as hard as he could.

Streams of ice began to wind themselves up his forearms, twisting up and over his shoulders and down his torso. Trying to keep himself sane, he kept his brain tracked on the sensation of the ice gliding across him, before focussing his energy into shaping the ice into an armour. By this point, Johnny was completely lost in thought and unaware of anything beyond the ice, a calming presence. 

“Hey, Sensei, how’s it go-?” He hadn’t heard the door open. 

Robby and Miguel stood in the doorway open-mouthed and eyes bulging in their sockets. 

“Dad?”

“Shit-“ the ice began to retract, leaving no indication it had ever been there. 

“Sensei, what’s going on?” Miguel made his way towards where Johnny was sitting, slowly and almost fearfully. He was scared. Johnny screwed his eyes shut. 

“I don’t know,” he said plainly.

Robby touched his arm with a force far gentler than he thought his son to be capable of. Opening his eyes, he saw his son and his student staring back at him with worry in their eyes.

“I don’t know,” this time he sighed and leaned into their touch. 

-

“No, Dad, this is really cool!” 

“Yeah, you could totally be like that fire guy Mitch was talking about earlier!”

The two boys stared at each other in glee, finally realising what this whole situation meant. 

“You can be a superhero.” They were both grinning from ear to ear and Johnny groaned, already hating where this conversation was going. 

“And how am I gonna do that? Just rock up all icy like “hey, guys, turns out there a fire man and an ice man isn’t that fan fucking tastic!”” 

“You gotta be less cynical about this. Plus you’re not alone in this, you’ve got me and Robby. We can help you train and learn how to use your powers.” 

“It’ll be like a superhero boot camp, you’ll be ready to help people in no time.” 

And, fuck, did Johnny wish he could say no to those kids.

-

There was another armed robbery a week later, this time at a bank maybe three streets down from Daniel. He hadn’t made any appearances since the first time and he wasn’t going to make it a thing, but it was so close to him. No harm in giving it a go. 

By the time he got there, the gang had already got the money and were busy terrorising the employees. He stepped carefully over the scattered notes on the floor and made his way over to the closest robber. 

“What ya doin’, kid?” He toned his accent up several notches and leaned as close into the woman’s space as he dared.

“Oh, fuck.” 

It was obvious from the horrified look on her face that his reputation preceded him. That would probably make this a whole lot easier.

“Hand over the cash,” Daniel sneered, focusing so that the fire where his left hand was reverted back to skin. He didn’t want to maim these people, he was here to stop them not to burn them. 

“Ya think this’ll work a second time? What sorta science-y shit ya got going on behind those flames, huh?” A man over to Daniel’s left was smirking at him and another woman was making her way over to cage him in on his right. So that’s how it was gonna go. 

Aiming a punch with his nonburning hand, Daniel pivoted towards the man, knocking him clean to the ground and slamming his right knee, which he’d now also uncovered, into his chest to knock the wind out of him. There were shouts from around him and he turned in time to stop the woman on his right with a sweeping kick to her knee, leaving her sprawled, trying to pull herself to her feet to no avail. 

“Need some help there, Hot Stuff?” A gruff voice sounded from behind Daniel and he shifted to see its source. A man stood there, ice stretching itself in an approximation of toned muscle across his limbs and his torso and working its way up over his head to obscure everything above his nose and below his mouth from view. He was smirking. 

“Who the fuck are you?” Real eloquent, Daniel. 

“Eh, was in the neighbourhood, thought I’d stop in. You can call me The Iceman” The man’s smirk only grew. 

“You just called me Hot Stuff and you expect me to refer to you as a character from fucking Top Gun?” The man’s smirk fell a little and looked expectantly at Daniel. “No chance, you’re going to be Frosty and nothing else.” 

Turning on his heel and kneeing the original woman in the stomach, then catching her face with his shoe as she hunched over, he turned and surveyed the man coated in ice. He was staring at him slightly in awe. Daniel made a split second decision. 

“Hey, Frosty. I thought you said you were helping.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’m churning out so much of this how long is it gonna be oh fuck


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i think this one’s a little shorter but i’m gonna start planning out where this is going so it’s more coherent  
> it will still be a mess tho but it’s really fun to write so

It was surreal just standing next to this guy he’d seen on the news, close enough Johnny could feel the heat from the flames trying to break away at the ice covering him. Shifting to face the other man in the now empty bank, he worked a smile onto his face and held out a hand.

“So,” he said, just to break the eerie silence that had settled around them. “We make a pretty good team.”

The man turned towards him, looking at his outstretched hand skeptically. Johnny was really considering taking it back, when he reached out and shook it, seemingly smiling a little.

“I guess we do, Frosty,” he said. “Maybe I’ll see you around.”

And then it was just Johnny, standing all alone in a mess of ice and singe marks.

-

Thinking about the mystery man who’d helped him was confusing. He was relieved he wasn’t alone in all of this, obviously, and the fact that it seemed the two weren’t necessarily capable of harming each other was a plus. But there was something weird about having to work in tandem with another person in two elements of his life now that he’d only ever done alone before that was disconcerting. 

Daniel also very much did not want to admit that they’d managed to work very well together or that he really hoped he’d be seeing the man again, sometime soon at that. Frosty, as he’d dubbed him, was occupying his thoughts more than he’d care to admit and they’d only met once for a period of no more than half an hour. He needed to talk to someone about this, maybe visiting Mr Miyagi would do him some good.

Of course the students had seen the news about the iceman; everyone had. As Chris and Nate wandered into the dojo, they eagerly chattered about it and swapped theories back and forth.

“Hey, Sensei LaRusso! Did you see the news?” Chris was looking at him expectantly, like he hoped he hadn’t so he’d be able to tell him. 

“The news?” Daniel feigned ignorance, blocking the images of an infuriating smirk and the feel of an ice cold hand in his own. 

“Yeah! There’s straight up some Elsa guy working with that fire dude now,” Chris punctuated each syllable with a wave of his arms and Nate rolled his eyes but looked equally as enthusiastic about the whole thing. 

“Not sure whether he’d like you calling him Elsa,” the smaller boy giggled a little.

“What the fuck is Elsa?” Ah, so Johnny was here. Miguel, naturally, was in tow and over the past few days Robby had been staying with his dad to test the waters so he completed the trio. Robby and Miguel split off towards the pond to begin their stretches and a few other students that had begun to trail in followed suit.

“Mind your language, I’m pretty sure Bert’s twelve,” Daniel found himself not really meaning his words, still on a high from the previous day.

“I know you were kidding, but he genuinely is twelve, Sensei LaRusso,” Nate called back. “And so am I.”

Daniel’s eyes bugged out of his head, his horror only cut off by Johnny calling the students towards them. He examined the blond man carefully, he seemed cheerful. That was weird and decidedly un-Johnny. 

-

He’d been on a high from the adrenaline of his heroics - and maybe he could still feel the phantom heat in his palm and his cheeks at the nickname, but Johnny wasn’t going to think about that - and finally getting to spend more time with his son for a whole day now. Robby had gotten a lot less withdrawn since he and Miguel had figured out his dad’s little secret and Johnny had a sneaking suspicion that the other boy’s presence had helped with that. 

The three of them were just sat around watching some stupid TV show when Miguel broached the topic of the fire man. 

“So did you get a good look at his face? Any features or a scar or something that you can’t see in the videos? What was he like? Did he smell weird, like burning or something? I reckon he has hair, does he have hair?” The boy barely took a breath, inhaling sharply after all of his questions. Robby snorted at his outburst, but turned towards his dad in a way that showed he was obviously interested in the answers, too.

“I didn’t sniff the guy, Diaz, he’s literally covered in fire,” Johnny huffed out. “And no, no features except for his eyes,” - disappointingly, his traitorous brain added - “didn’t see any hair either.”

It’s not like he hadn’t been thinking about the guy for a solid two days by this point, because he very much had and was willing to admit it. He’d liked guys in the past, even fancied Daniel fucking LaRusso at one stage, but this guy was a bit of an anomaly and that was terrifying. 

“You’re no fun, Sensei,” Miguel whined. “We could have figured out his identity by now!”

“Oh, you’re sure? Because Mr “Laptops Are For Nerds” is gonna be part of the team to crack the case that literally no one has been able to solve for an entire month,” Robby said, ignoring the protests. 

A breaking news alert cut off any further qualms, anyway, and all three turned their full attention back to the screen. A tsunami. Shit.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pretty much exclusively the boys.

So, maybe fire wasn’t gonna help this time, but Daniel had set up a burning perimeter to keep the members of the public away just before Frosty showed up. He’d figured out that whatever magical fire thing he had going on wasn't impacted by water, as he thought back to the first night and the lack of relief the faucet brought him, which meant that maybe he could probably sort this situation out if his teammate decided that this whole hero thing wasn’t for him. 

Thank God Frosty made it, though, running in through the flames and raising an ice-clad eyebrow at him.

“So, we’re gonna start setting fire to shit to help the situations now?” Frosty was already turning towards the wave that was quickly approaching. Maybe it wasn’t such a good thing this asshole had decided to come. 

“Jesus, man, I was trying to help,” Daniel sighed, surveying his work. Why he felt the need to defend himself to this stranger, he wasn’t sure, “it won’t cause any damage and it kept the civilians out of the way long enough.”

“I know it’s hard for you, but chill out, Hot Stuff,” Frosty was smiling at him. “I got this.”

The man strutted forward and threw his arms out in front of him, faced towards the ocean and the oncoming wave. A great wall of ice enveloped the crashing mass, halting it in its path. Shifting his stance and flinging his arms outstretched with palms tilted up towards the sky, Frosty split the wall in two with a humongous crash. He moved once more, leaning forward and raising his arms above his head, conjuring a border of ice all around the bay, before bringing them forcefully down towards his body where they lay at his side. This caused the two mountains of ice to melt, splashing messily down into the ocean and slapping harshly into the makeshift border. 

“Wow, I didn’t think that was gonna work,” Frosty said, sounding way too sincere about that for Daniel’s liking.

“That was pretty impressive, Frosty,” he said, nodding along slowly. 

“Yeah, well now we gotta figure out how to shift all this ice without flooding the valley.” Daniel turned sharply at his words.

“We?” he inquired warily.

“I mean yeah, we’re partners aren’t we,” Frosty was now looking at him, uncertainly like maybe he’d misread the situation. “Not like partners, but teammates, y’know? We’re not banging or anything, I just meant-” as fun as it was to hear the man get so flustered, they still had a situation to deal with so Daniel begrudgingly cut him off.

“I get it,” he smiled a little at his teammate. “Look, I can’t move the ice, but I have an idea. You’re going to need to lift it slightly, move it as a whole barrier to filter the water through slowly.”

Frosty seemed to think about it for a while, “okay, Hot Stuff.” And then he added, almost like an afterthought, “I trust you.” 

He set about following the instructions, but Daniel wasn’t paying much attention, the man’s last comment felt incredibly intimate and it hit something inside him. Once the task was completed, he shook himself out of his thoughts and plastered a grin on his face.

“Good job there, Elsa,” he said. He’d already turned to remove his flamed perimeter with a quick wave of his arm, before turning back to see Frosty staring at him with a funny expression pulling at the corner of his mouth.

“Why does everyone keep saying that? What is an Elsa?” Frosty seemed genuinely disgruntled. Daniel, on the other hand, burst out laughing so hard his flames rose an extra foot in the air as he doubled over. 

-

It was a few more meetings after that that Johnny fully acknowledged just how gone he was. The problem had really started when that stupid Elsa comment had made the man, who he’d not permanently dubbed “Hot Stuff”, laugh. It was a beautiful, rhythmic sound and when Hot Stuff has eventually recovered, he’d leaned his head back at an odd angle to wipe away his tears,  
allowing Johnny to see the sun reflecting in the glowing eye sockets, exposing a sliver of his natural eye colour. It was deep brown and visible in the sunlight were golden flecks. Johnny had cleared his throat and looked away.

But now it was a Thursday and no one was laughing, a man with a gun aimed steadily at Hot Stuff stood across from them and Johnny felt his heart beating hard. 

“Hey, man, it’s fine we’re not gonna hurt you,” his voice shook and he cursed inwardly. Having the realisation that you really, really don’t want a stranger to get shot to the point where you’d throw yourself in front of the gun wasn’t fun and the longer the gun was on the other man, the more frantic Johnny became. “Just put the gun down.”

His attempt to get the gun back on him was a success, but he’d managed to piss the guy off enough that somewhere, somehow the trigger was pulled. The man dropped the gun and ran, Hot Stuff turned to survey him, checking for any injuries and not finding any, before chasing the gunman. 

Unfortunately (or fortunately, Johnny wasn’t self-destructive enough that he wanted the weird fire entity he thought was pretty to touch him) Johnny was injured, a small drop of blood fell to the floor at his feet and he cursed. Removing the ice from his body and seeing a growing stain making its way over his torso, he cursed again and covered the wound in ice. 

“Fuck,” Johnny turned and ran towards his apartment. He probably looked insane, eyes wide and clutching his side where a huge, crimson patch spread outwards from his hand, as he ran full speed down the middle of the sidewalk. 

Eventually making it into the complex, he fished out his keys and threw his body weight against the door to get inside as quickly as possible. Miguel and Robby were both practically sitting on each other, springing to their feet and rushing towards him.

“Dad, holy shit,” breathed Robby, tugging on his hand to survey the wound. 

“Diaz, your mom’s a nurse, right? Reckon she can fix me up?” Johnny grumbled, sinking into the couch and waving away the frantic hands. 

“Sensei, she’s an x-ray technician, not a surgeon. Also I’m pretty sure she’s on a date with sensei’s ex-wife,” said Miguel. Both Robby and Johnny turned to him,  
injury temporarily forgotten.

“My mom?”

“Shannon?”

“What, no, it’s Sensei LaRusso’s ex-wife,” exclaimed Miguel.

“LaRusso’s divorced?” questioned Johnny. 

“Your priorities are not fucking correct, Dad.”

“Look, okay we’ll talk about this later, we have to get him to hospital.” Miguel was pulling him up and tugging Robby along with his other hand.

-

Daniel had only just gotten through the door, when his phone rang. He’d managed to track down the guy and subdue him before the cops arrived and when he went back to the scene to see Frosty, he saw a wet pool of blood and searched for the man in his civilian form for the next hour. Back in the present, Johnny’s name was flashing on his screen, his voice grainilly breaking through the speakers.

“Hey, LaRusso,” he sounded tougher than usual. “Just letting you know I won’t be at training today, I got fucking shot.”

“Dad, get off the phone, the nurse wants to see you,” came Robby’s muffled voice in the background. Johnny hung up. 

“What the fuck?” Daniel stared at the blank screen for a good ten minutes before turning on his heel and rushing out of the door towards his car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> was gonna fuck around and have johnny be on anaesthesia and tell daniel he’s got superpowers but we’re gonna do it differently


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know why Johnny turns into a three year old on pain medication, but it was funny af to right so that’s how he is now I guess.

He made it to the hospital fairly quickly, rushing up to the third floor when the receptionist told him the room number and greeting a surprisingly relaxed looking Robby and Miguel. This didn’t last, as the second they saw Daniel, the two boys stiffened and sat upright, mouths working to form an answer to the questions they knew had to be coming.

“Uh, Mr LaRusso, heyyyyyy. Wassup, gurl,” Miguel was mercifully cut off by an elbow to the ribs by the other boy, who promptly began to speak.

“How did you know he was here?” Robby inquired.

“He called me and told me he’d been shot, what happened? Is he okay?” Daniel said, looking at the closed door to Johnny’s hospital room. Surely if the boys weren’t worried then he shouldn’t be either, but yet he was. He was borderline frantic, hands shaking at his sides. 

“He uh, he ate a dodgy pizza, his stomach’s all messed up,” Robby said. His words earned him a jab to the ribs this time, as Miguel whispered harshly in his ear, “dude, he literally just said he knows he got shot.”

Daniel looked back and forth between both boys, narrowing his eyes in a way that was entirely too reminiscent of a teacher. Miguel backed towards the hospital room, muttering something about checking to see if Johnny was ready to see anyone and effectively leaving poor Robby to fend for himself. 

“Look, Mr LaRusso, we’re not crystal clear what happened ourselves,” he was being honest now, Daniel could tell, and he pushed out a shaky breath. “He sort of stumbled in mumbling about a gun and there was - there was a lot of blood.”

Robby’s voice shook a little and he turned to face the ceiling in an attempt to compose himself. Just as he felt himself move forward to embrace the boy so obviously in distress before him, Daniel heard the door crack open and Robby was being pulled inside.

“Wait here just a moment, Sensei LaRusso. We’ll be right back.”

-

Inside the room, Robby was in the middle of asking just what the fuck Miguel thought he was doing, when he took in his surroundings. 

“Shit, what do we do?” Robby asked.

The walls were covered in a thick layer of ice and even the drip that was attached to his dad’s arm was beginning to freeze over. The man himself seemed completely unaware, too busy living in a fantasy world, eyes unfocused and brain too hopped up on pain meds for him to feel anything. 

“Sensei,” Miguel tried, shaking his arm lightly so as not to hurt him. And then, with more urgency and volume, “Sensei!”

Still nothing. Johnny had begun to drool a little, giggling as he noticed the wet patch forming on his collar bone. Jesus Christ.

“Dad, hey, come on,” Robby huffed at the lack of response, raising his hand and delivering a slap to his father’s face. 

At least that got a response, resulting in Johnny sitting bolt upright and staring around, still in a daze.

“Hey, Elsa, you think you can shift some of this ice?” Miguel said. Johnny turned towards him with a strange expression on his face.

“Hot Stuff called me that,” was all he said.

“Hot Stuff?” 

“The pretty guy with all the fire,” now Johnny was grinning. “He’s really pretty.”

Ew, his dad has a weird superhero crush. Luckily, Miguel didn’t seem to be as fazed, his brain working quickly to figure the situation out. 

“Yeah, I know that guy. I know Hot Stuff,” Miguel was leaning towards Johnny now. “I gotta tell you, I don’t think he’d be too happy with the state this room is in, dude.”

“I’d say, isn’t that guy a neat freak? What if he comes and visits you? He’ll probably just run out,” Robby had caught on and was running with Miguel’s ingenious plan.

Johnny was now sporting a big frown, taking in their words before lifting the arm not containing the drip and removing the ice from the room. The boys let out a joint sigh and turned to tell their other sensei that it was safe to enter.

-

Robby opened the door and told him he could come inside, carefully closing it behind him. The first thing Daniel noticed was how cold it was in the room, the second was that Johnny was high as absolute shit. Miguel was trying to get the man to lie back down, muttering quietly to him but smiling at Daniel when he entered.

“Sensei, look who’s here,” he said, moving out of the way so Johnny could see his visitor clearly. 

“LaRusso!” his voice was a lot more emotional than usual and he flung his arms wide when he realised that it was his co-sensei. He looked a little like a toddler, smiling unabashedly and showing such open excitement to see another human being.

“Uh, hi, Johnny,” Daniel slid into an unoccupied seat by the bed, surrounded by wires, tubes and machines, all somehow connected to the man laying on it. “How are you feeling?”

“No, how are you feeling?” Johnny giggled and Daniel had to bite the side of his cheek to keep himself from grinning at the noise. 

“You worried me, Johnny, I can’t lie,” Daniel said, noting the way Johnny seemed to actually look ashamed.

“Sorry, Danny.” 

The three other occupants of the room stood in shocked silence before Robby cleared his throat, breaking the moment. 

“Dad, how are you feeling?”

“Hole-y,” and suddenly another fit of giggles was brought on. Robby rolled his eyes and smiled a little, but it quickly dropped off of his face when he caught sight of something over Daniel’s shoulder. Trying to see what was wrong, he turned before being caught by Miguel and twirled to face the bed again as Robby ran to stand suspiciously in front of a vase of flowers in the corner. Before the boy managed to fully cover them, he swore he caught a glimpse of the surface of the water, now covered in what looked a lot like ice.

Before he could question this strange interaction, Daniel’s attention was captured once again by the injured party, as he let out a grunt. Miguel held out a hand to Johnny, asking what was wrong only to get a quick boop on the nose having now become his the cause of his sensei’s hiccuping laughter.

-

Telling the students was interesting. 

“Sensei Lawrence was fucking what?” Bert cried, his face practically mirroring the horrified stare of the entire class.

“Language, Bert,” Daniel admonished without really meaning it. “He was shot, we’re not really sure how. But, he’s okay and he should be able to rejoin us in a few days, even if he can’t actively participate in the lessons for a while.”

This seemed to settle the kids at least a little and Daniel found himself missing the presence at his side as he taught. Apparently he’d gotten used to sharing his dojo. It didn’t even feel like just his dojo now.

-

The next day’s lesson had gone much the same, but Sam hung back at the end with Miguel and Robby, who he’d agreed to take to the hospital after. She was holding a colourful bit of paper, clutching it like a lifeline, before handing it over to him.

“Dad, some of the students made this for Sensei Lawrence. We’re not sure whether he’ll like it but,” Sam continued somewhat timidly, “we figured it couldn’t hurt to tell him that we care about him.” 

Daniel was shocked, he looked down at the card in his hands. On the front in a messy scrawl of vibrant letters were the words “Sorry You Got Shot, Sensei!” with a poorly drawn tyrannosaurus rex in a gi giving a thumbs up below it. Inside was a message from every single student, some short, some paragraphs. It was unbelievably sweet and Daniel felt himself tear up a little before blinking hard and smiling at the three students in front of him.

“I’m sure he’ll love it.”

-

When he was discharged three days later, Johnny Lawrence tucked the card into the inside of his jacket, leaving it aptly close to his heart. No way were any of those little assholes going to know he’d kept it and intended to keep it for a very long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> squad i’ve written out a lil plan for this so now i actually know where it’s going which is bangning  
> once again anyone who’s stuck around this long THANK YOU SO MUCH


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel being really worried for like five paragraphs and Amanda and Carmen on a date.

Consider the sapphics: shocked

It’d been a month since he was shot and Johnny was getting back into the swing of things at the dojo, but he hadn’t yet plucked up the courage to return to being his icy alter ego. Look, the hot guy had it handled and he probably figured his teammate needed a breather or something. Maybe he hadn’t even noticed that Johnny wasn’t there, it hurt to think like that and Johnny always stopped his train of thought at that point. Not that it was always his conscious choice to cut off his thoughts. 

“Sensei,” bellowed at least three voices. Whipping round, he saw Nate, Mitch and Demetri leant towards him with concern etched into their faces. Hawk sidled up too, reaching for Demetri’s hand and intertwining their fingers.

“You were completely zoned, Sensei, is everything ok?” Nate pushed his glasses back up his nose after he scrunched it up when he spoke. 

“Yeah, kid, get back to training or LaRusso’s gonna kill you,” Johnny said and waved dismissively at the crowd. 

Hawk furrowed his eyebrows and Demetri held out his free hand to indicate the time on his watch. It was 5pm and class had been over for a good twenty minutes. Shit. 

Trying to act as put together as he was capable of, Johnny rose to his feet and turned towards the house. 

“Where’s LaRusso?” 

“He left almost an hour ago and left us to our own devices for the last half an hour of training,” Nate said. That wasn’t what he was expecting to hear and he dismissed the boys, watching their retreating backs and they made their way out of the gate. 

LaRusso was never one to slack on work and Johnny found himself concerned about his whereabouts before telling himself firmly that, despite looking like a teenager, Daniel LaRusso was a grown ass man. 

-

It’d been more than a month since the last Frosty sighting (not that Daniel had taken to checking those shitty blogs that detailed theories about the ice man’s identity and location, no sir) and more than a month since the mugging that he stopped with his help, only to return and find the other man missing with a pool of blood in his wake. It was concerning and he was really starting to miss his presence. 

And not only because his no shows meant Daniel now had to resort to skipping out on the end of sessions and leaving his students in the capable hands of his daughter whenever there was a beep on the police scanner he’d acquired to make his superhero job easier. It was becoming abundantly clear with every new crime thwarted and no sign of his teammate, that Daniel had begun to care deeply about him. 

Not knowing if he was okay, not knowing if he was even alive, only made him more frantic in his superhero form, more fire pulsing around his body the more he thought about Frosty. It in these thoughts that he found himself lost as he entered the rubble of the small cafe that’s roof had almost completely caved in.

“Hey, is anyone in here,” Daniel called,  
lifting up a large section of ceiling to check for anyone trapped. He heard a shuffling noise from further in the shop and could only just make out a faint mumbling.

“Help,” it was a female voice, one he recognised but wasn’t focussed enough to place. Throwing forward a small burst of flame to act as a light, Daniel searched for the source of the noise.

“I’m here, it’s okay,” he was never very good in intense situations and he hoped that whoever was in trouble was too preoccupied to notice the wobble in his voice. “Where are you?” 

“Please, help. My girlfriend is injured,” she sounded tearful and Daniel hurried to remove a particularly large section of plaster, freeing up a grubby hand that reached out towards him. Looking down he could make out two women huddled together, one strewn over the other’s lap,  
obviously unconscious.

“Amanda,” he now knew why he recognised the voice, it was that of his ex-wife’s girlfriend (what a sentence), Carmen. Carmen raised her head quickly, eyes widening as she too seemed to realise she knew her saviour.

“Daniel?” she exclaimed, moving her hand from where it was stroking Amanda’s hair gently from her forehead, Carmen shielded her eyes and squinted up at him. He cursed inwardly, blood turning cold knowing that someone was now in on his secret but too worried about his friends to focus on it.

“Look, I’ll explain later, but I’ve got to get you two out of here,” to emphasise his point, Daniel held the ceiling he was supporting further above his head and nodded his head towards the path he’d created with his entrance. “Was anyone else in here?”

“Yeah, there was the barista, but he was in the back and he got out just before everything collapsed.” Carmen was shaking as she stood, pieces of rubble slipping from her hair and clothing as she righted Amanda and slung the other woman’s arm over her shoulder to support her. It took a few attempts for her to successfully make her way past him and out the door, but the second she was Daniel let the ceiling fall and burnt his way out of the building.

He made it out in time to see an ambulance pull up and whisk away a still-unconscious Amanda and a shaking Carmen, who gripped the former’s hand tightly and directed a wobbly smile back at Daniel.

-

That was how Daniel gou himself at the hospital just like he had been months prior, stood poised to knock on the closed room door he’d been directed to. 

“Come in,” Amanda’s voice was hoarse, but relief washed through him when he realised she was awake. When he opened the door, Carmen was sitting with her head resting on Amanda’s stomach, Amanda who was carding her fingers gently through her girlfriend’s hair. Daniel allowed himself a small smile at the show of affection. 

Amanda looked at him with tired eyes, her hair still coated in rubble and her face covered in gashes and scrapes, but otherwise unharmed. She smiled at him and gestured towards the empty seat on the opposite side of her bed. He took it gratefully.

“How are you feeling?” Daniel asked. 

“Eh, been better. Carmen tells me you were a real help,” she levelled a very pointed look at him and he suddenly knows what this conversation is about to be. Daniel let out a sigh and turned towards the two women, both of whom were now looking at him expectantly.

“That guy on the news, the one covered in fire?” he waits for both women to nod their heads in comprehension. “It’s me. No one else knows and I’d like to keep it that way, but I trust you both to keep it a secret.” 

“Daniel, how did this happen?” Amanda said, her brow creased.

“I don’t know, I,” he broke off searching for the words. “I woke up one day and I was on fire, but it didn’t hurt and I had no idea what to do.” 

“Thank you for saving us,” Carmen smiled at him warmly like he hadn’t just revealed he possessed the ability to set everything around them ablaze. It was comforting and he found himself smiling back.

“I’m glad I was there, I don’t know what would have happened if,” Daniel swallowed the rest of his words and looked away. Amanda squeezed his hand lightly before letting go. 

“So, what about that other guy? The one with all the ice,” Amanda smirked at him. “What’s his deal? We weren’t important enough for the whole shabang?” 

“I don’t know who he is. Haven't seen him in a month and I’m pretty sure last time I saw him he got hurt pretty badly,” he grimaced and ran a hand over his face.

“Hold on, do you, do you care about him? Oh my God, you do!” Amanda almost squealed, not even letting Daniel say a word, but he assumed the blush on his face gave him away. All he could do was groan and mutter out a few grumbled expletives, face still buried in his hands.

“Maybe he’s recovering. I assume it takes a lot out of you to go out and be the hero, maybe he’s okay but he’s trying to rest his injury.” Daniel looked up to see Carmen watching him carefully as she spoke. He gave her a small smile and nodded a little. 

“Yeah, maybe.”

They didn’t talk about Frosty after that and when he returned to his car about an hour later, Daniel left Carmen sleeping soundly against Amanda’s bed, with the latter’s hand still woven gently into her hair and a fond smile playing on her lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it’s been a few days since the last update but i’m working on getting this done by mid next week :)
> 
> also really regretting the lack of toryaisha and og cobras in this fic


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuing the trend of having a nee target for whump each chapter, Daniel finds himself in a sticky situation. Also big boy revelations maybe?

Shit went down the following Wednesday. Daniel was at work and there’d still been no sign of the man Amanda had affectionately dubbed “my ex-husband’s little crush” (he was grown up enough to be able to accept that she was right, but he didn’t have to like it and the nickname made his face heat up every time he heard it), meaning he was more than a little preoccupied with worry as he hunched over the papers on his desk. Sparing a glance at the clock, Daniel allowed himself a small smile at the realisation that his work day was almost over and he’d be able to close up and prepare for the training session he had planned for the next day. 

It was a light click that alerted him to someone else’s presence in the room. Something cold hit him across his temple and the world spun a little, forcing him to stumble forwards from his seat and sending the papers fluttering in random directions to the floor. 

“Easy there, old man. Don’t make this difficult and you won’t get hurt,” a gruff voice broke through the fogginess spreading in his head from the impact. Daniel was weighing up the pros and cons of either taking out the guy’s knees or just plain singing off his eyebrows when a second voice sounded through a radio that he assumed was pinned somewhere on his assailant.

“Boss, we got the key.” 

“Alright, start loading the lorry. Our karate man here isn’t fighting anywhere near as hard as his ads would make you believe,” the man chuckled slightly and with that the room fell silent again. 

“What are you doing?” Daniel’s voice shook slightly, though more from rage than fear. He was still unable to focus his gaze, his vision swimming every time he even fractionally moved his head and he could hear the blood from his head wound drip onto the carpet at his feet.

“Can it, LaRusso.” Hearing someone that wasn’t Johnny utter his surname like that felt like some kind of sacrilege. No sooner had the words been punched out to him, Daniel was being yanked to his feet and marched towards the staircase that led back down towards the main showroom floor. He noticed at least four of the display cars missing and hissed under his breath.

Before he could be paraded down the stairs, a chill penetrated the air, followed by a familiar voice. 

“Looks like I’ve interrupted something,” Frosty quipped without any form of humour in his voice. Daniel found it strange how the other man had warbled over the last syllable like he was more concerned than he’d been the previous times he’d stopped situations exactly like this.

“Fuck off, Icicles, you’re too late,” the man holding Daniel snapped, holding his captive by the back of his shirt and angling him over the glass barrier protecting him from a large fall to the sales room floor below. Fuck.

“I don’t think so, kid, I’ve already taken care of your little friends outside.” Frosty wouldn’t be able to see the drop that was facing him, Daniel’s captor had angled his body so that it was hidden. He didn’t know what fate he was inadvertently signing Daniel up for by continuing to goad the man.

“Is that so? Well I guess I have no more need for this guy then,” the smirk was audible in the man’s voice. 

And then Daniel was falling, the wind whistling through his hair. The last thing he saw was an icy pair of hands desperately grasping for him and striking blue eyes widened in complete horror.

-

“Daniel,” Johnny screamed, his voice sounding foreign to his own ears as he ran towards the man’s lifeless form. He’d been passing by and debating whether or not to drop in and see Daniel on his way back from dropping Robby off at Shannon’s for the week. He’d ended up deciding against it, but then he caught a glimpse of a large lorry pulling into the lot and at least five men jumping out dressed in the stereotypical dark clothing and balaclavas. Fuck.

It had only been five minutes and now Daniel was in a crumpled heap with his head in a sobbing Johnny’s lap. How didn’t he get there sooner? This could have all been avoided if he’d just gotten there sooner. And where was Hot Stuff? That guy was usually at scenes first, but apparently he was a no show. 

Gazing down at the man in his lap, who was steadily blinking up at him, Johnny uttered spiels of nonsense to try and calm himself. 

“Daniel, hey hey, stay with me, man,” his voice shook dangerously and his hands were no better as they made their way gently across the other man’s face, stroking carefully along his forehead and gracefully along his jawline. “LaRusso, you’re not quitting on me now.”

Daniel let out a shaky breath, eyes still closed and chest heaving shallowly. That was a good sign, right? Johnny resumed his babbling, but was interrupted when he realised the other man was trying to say something, his lips moving slowly but no sound coming out.

Johnny leaned closer and caught two simple syllables that were somehow both almost drowned out by the sirens entering the scene and deafeningly loud. Shocked into silence, Johnny allowed the medics to take Daniel from his arms and wheel him away, his mind trained solely on the word the man had spoken.

“Frosty..”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> giggling ok so i’m gonna get this chapter up and then finish off the last two : ) ty for reading


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hmmmm, let’s see what happens.

“How do you think I’m fucking feeling? The guy I might have been a little bit in love with is un-fucking-conscious because I couldn’t save him and it turns out he’s this dude I’ve known for thirty-six fucking years,” Johnny pulled harder at his hair with every word, staring wildly down at his kids, one who was sat with red-rimmed eyes with the other holding him tightly and whispering soothing words into his hair. 

Miguel ceased his whisperings and raised his head to glance worriedly at Johnny. Robby’s head flopped onto his shoulder and he whimpered softly, setting the boy back off on his incoherent mumblings. 

Jesus fucking Christ, he felt like he was always in this hospital. The second he or one of his loved ones got out, another was admitted and the whole process of pacing anxiously around the halls began again. Amanda came up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. He turned and she gave a watery smile before she silently led him over to the seats opposite Robby and Miguel. 

“What’s going on with you, Johnny?” she whispered. He could only stare back at her, figuring out what to say. 

“Amanda, I love him,” he broke then, leaning his weight onto the poor woman beside him and unleashing the full force of his despair into the crook of her neck. She rubbed soothing circles on his back and told him that it was okay. But it wasn’t okay.

-

Johnny awoke to Robby perched in front of him, his eyes a lot less puffy than they had been the day before, and Miguel’s hand clutched tightly in his own. It had been a completely dreamless sleep and all he had were questions running through his brain, all related to the two men he cared for so deeply being in fact just one man. 

Before he passed out on her shoulder, Johnny had told Amanda everything. All about his weird abilities; the fire man and how he thought - no knew, because although it was cheesy to say, he just knew and there was no doubt in his mind - that he was Daniel; how he’d started to think about him all the time and then how he got shot and hadn’t seen Hot Stuff in months. And then he’d told her about the hours previously at LaRusso Auto; how Daniel had crumpled before him and then uttered the name that only one man could know.

Back in the present, his son was talking but Johnny wasn’t taking in anything he was saying. He caught the end of the sentence, something about waking-

“-Up, he’s allowed visitors and Mrs LaRusso says we can go in after she gets out.” Robby shook his shoulder lightly to make sure he was paying attention and when he was satisfied, he continued. “You need to tell him, Dad, he deserves to know.”

“We’ll go in with you, Sensei, but then we’ll leave it up to you,” Miguel chipped in. Just as he finished talking, Amanda emerged from the door beside them and placed a soothing hand on Johnny’s arm. 

“He’s ready for you,” she smiled at him, this time less watery and with a lot more conviction.

Getting up off of the chair and following the boys into the room, Johnny breathed in one incredibly deep breath and then exhaled. He had to do this. 

“Mr LaRusso, hey,” Robby said. 

“Robby, Miguel, what are you guys doing here?” Daniel’s voice was hoarse and, as Johnny made his way further into the room, he could make out a thick layer of gauze wrapped around the man’s head. A brace sat on his neck, though it was minus one of those metal structures that Miguel had had on his, and his skin was almost sickly pale. But he was alive.

“We were worried about you,” came Miguel’s blunt reply. He made his way towards Daniel’s bedside and held up his phone. On it was Sam, looking completely disheveled and half broken, but her face lit up the instant she saw her father.

“Sam,” Daniel beamed at his daughter, a smile that shouldn’t be allowed on the face of someone in such a state. 

“Hey, Dad, I’m on the train back now. I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there,” her voice cut off a little as she held back her tears. They fell anyway. 

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, sweetheart. I’m going to be okay,” Daniel chuckled a little. “I hope you realise I didn’t plan this just to crash your week away.”

Sam let out a teary giggle, wiping her eyes with the back of her sleeve. Something sounded behind her and she turned around, before facing the screen again with an apologetic grimace. “I’m sorry, Dad, the train’s setting off. I gotta go.”

“It’s okay, I’ll see you soon. I love you, Sam.”

“I love you too, Dad.” And then the line disconnected.

“Thank you, Miguel,” Daniel had turned his head to look at the boy. Miguel wrung his hands a little at the attention.

“Yeah, well, I know what it’s like to be in here. It’s lonely sometimes,” he sighed a little and smiled at the man lying on the bed. 

“How are you feeling?” Robby asked. He’d made his way to the opposite side of the bed and was perched dangerously close to Daniel, so much so that the man had to crane his braced neck a little to look at him.

“I’m okay, Robby. Thank you for visiting me,” he smiled brightly at both boys.

“We should probably get going, but Dad said he’ll hang around,” Robby said almost mischievously. Those fucking kids had assigned him to his fate.

“Oh, you don’t have to,” Daniel was gazing at him, brows furrowed. Johnny had to turn away from the intensity of his eyes. 

“It’s no problem, LaRusso,” he grumbled. Daniel beamed in response and the boys took it as their cue to exit. On his way out Miguel stopped by Johnny and whispered to him,

“You got this, Sensei. Just tell him how you feel,” and Johnny could feel his face practically burning.

Once they'd left, he strode over to the chair set up by Daniel’s bed and took a seat, avoiding his gaze again. He cleared his throat

“So, I hear you had a run in with old Mr. Freeze. He seems a bit intense,” fuck that was dumb.

Daniel wheezed out a laugh and stared up at the ceiling, eyes flicking left and right like he was searching it for answers. Finding nothing, he turned his face slightly to meet Johnny’s eyes.

“Eh, he seems pretty chill,” his eyes gleamed and that beaming smile had slid its way back onto his face. Johnny let out a surprised laugh at the joke and shook his head at how unbelievable the man before him was. 

“Jesus, LaRusso. You really gave me-us a scare,” he quickly corrected himself. Didn’t want to seem needy or whatever.

“I’m sorry, Johnny,” he whispered. It was so soft he almost didn’t catch it.

“No, I’m sorry I,” Johnny paused. How the fuck was he meant to start this? He let out a huge breath and decided that, fuck it, today was the day. “I’m sorry, Hot Stuff.”

Turning to catch Daniel’s reaction, Johnny was more scared than he’d felt in years and his heart was hammering behind his rib cage. Daniel lay blinking slowly at him, mouth opening and closing frantically. His face was a picture of absolute shock.

“Hi,” Johnny tried again weakly. He held up a palm, covering it lightly in ice to prove his point and then returning it to normal and clasping it nervously with the other in his lap. God, what was he, a teenage fucking girl? All nervous and shit, it was insane. 

Daniel let out a quiet sob and said the word that got them into this mess in the first place.

“Frosty?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it’s nearly over : (  
> but you can head over to eqqvfx on tumblr to see this one really  
> horrible sketch of the boys all super powered up  
> i’d love to hear from you thank you sm for reading ily all :))


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I LITERALLY FORGOT ABOUT THIS FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH FELLAS AND LEGENDS I’M SO SORRY

“Frosty?” Daniel said, the word bubbling out of him in the form of a sob. His hands were shaking as he raised them out towards the man at his bedside and the heart rate monitor picked up slightly, but Johnny didn’t notice. It was one thing to connect the dots and be pretty sure that the man before him was actually his partner unmasked, but this was a confirmation and suddenly every sound, every beep of the machines surrounding them and the scrapes of waiting room chairs was drowned out by that two syllable word. The air flew out of his lungs in an ironically frosty breath, curling up into the air above them and melting a little in the warm aura surrounding Daniel. 

And then he was laughing, he didn’t know why, but he was. Tears started to form in his eyes and he did his best to gasp out, “this whole fucking time? It was you this whole time? Oh my God.”

“Johnny, you have got to be fucking kidding me, man,” but Daniel, despite the unusual rasp to his voice, was beginning to dissolve into laughter too. He was still reaching out and Johnny leaned closer, the two men gripping each other and continuing to cackle obscenely.

The whole situation was insane and it took them a solid five minutes to calm down enough to speak and it only subsided because Daniel had started to wheeze a little and Johnny was not about to be the reason he was uncomfortable. He scooted over, allowing Daniel more space and letting the other man lay back into the pillows gently, but he still stayed on the edge of the bed.

“So, you’re my weird crime fighting partner, huh?” Daniel was smiling and, even though he still lay broken in the hospital bed, Johnny knew he was going to be okay.

“Yeah. Yeah I am.”

-

Things went fairly well after that, what with Daniel quite literally getting back on his feet within a few months and crime being kept to a minimum, meaning Johnny was able to mostly handle it by himself. Now there was a collection of people who knew about their identities; Amanda and Carmen having handled it surprisingly well, Miguel and Robby having been in the loop for pretty much the entire time and Sam might have still been freaking out, but everything was okay.

Daniel was glad to be back in business as his superhero identity, though he knew he probably shouldn’t be what with how he spent a great amount of time hiding how unsure he still was on his feet in front of Johnny. It had taken months of convincing for the other man not to physically freeze him in place to protect him from whatever dangerous situation they were facing (which felt like a full body hug and was strangely intimate, but Daniel was very much not thinking about that).

Training had resumed as normal and somehow their “friendship” (“we’re not braiding each other’s hair, LaRusso we aren’t friends.” “Something you not telling me about your friendship with Bobby, John,”) had remained at the exact same pace as it had before, despite Daniel now being fully aware that there was something else there on his part which he, at the risk of repeating himself, was not thinking about. In fact, blue eyes had kept him awake and restless the previous night and his ability to move was suffering greatly as he stumbled out of the way of a flying chunk of ice.

“Sorry, man,” Johnny wasn’t even looking at him as he said it, instead focussing entirely on the man he’d just effectively pinned a nearby wall with a thick sheet of ice.

“Be more careful, asshole.” That earned him a glare, but the next round of thugs were already running towards them and there was no time for any snide remarks. Daniel forced his limbs into a fighting position and he used the remainder of his strength to aim a roundhouse kick to the jaw of the nearest assailant, following it through with a wave of flames that sent the other five barrelling backwards into a cluster of dumpsters. To his right, Johnny was dealing with the final woman, creating a sheen of ice under her feet and watching with a smirk as she skidded and fell into a heap with the rest. 

Daniel stumbled his way over, stepping over the patches of ice and the unconscious bodies.

-

Johnny turned his head and caught sight of Daniel unevenly making his way over. He ran up to the other man in time to catch him as he fell, but not quickly enough to stop his own demise and LaRusso, the asshole that he is, pulled him down with him. Both men lay panting in a pile, with Johnny realising just  
how close he was to Daniel, hands braced on either side of his head and face inches from his own. Every exhale had their breaths mingling, the heat from Daniel’s exterior lingering on his skin in an exhilarating contrast to the cold that he was used to feeling. 

“Frosty.” That word really had far too much influence on Johnny’s brain, it short circuited every time he heard it and knowing who was really saying it wasn’t helping. Nor was the fact that he was now kissing said man. Wait fuck.

-

Mitch came skidding into the dojo ten minutes late that morning, brandishing his phone in one hand with his eyes so wide that Sam was afraid they’d explode. It was already weird that neither her dad nor Sensei Lawrence had shown up, but Miguel had mentioned something about a superhero thing so she’d come up with an excuse and started warming up the class. 

“Holy shit, Mitch, are you good?” Chris had moved from where he was stretching on the grass to stand facing his friend, grabbing him by the shoulders and looking into his eyes with worry. Mitch was still looking shocked.

“Guys, I was running late so I took the shortcut and then I saw,” he trailed off and was still staring wildly ahead, but he held his phone up to Chris with a shaking hand. Chris took it and stared at the screen for a moment, before his eyes widened and he dropped the device. “Holy shit”, he breathed.

Robby had also made his way over and picked up the phone, Bert and Aisha hovering behind him and peering over his shoulders. 

“Fuck.”

Sam was beginning to get worried, she swiftly snatched the screen from Robby’s hands and surveyed the damage. On it was a photo of two men, one glowing a brilliant orange and the other encased in a pale blue layer of ice that reflected the light from the other man. They lay on the floor, splayed gracelessly with the icy figure covering the other, their lips were pulled into barely concealed smiles. It was hard to tell though, considering their mouths were very much joined in a very clear kiss and their arms snaked tightly around one another, as if they never wanted to let go.

“For fuck’s sake,” Sam heard herself say.

-

Daniel figured one day that if he held Johnny’s hand or was affectionate in any way, the man would lose control of his powers enough to create light layers of ice on whatever poor surface was close by. Johnny has not known peace since.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you sm for reading this!!! it’s finally over i’m sorry it took so long and it feels a little rushed but!!!! we made it!


End file.
